Ramallah, 18-12-07: Financial pledges of support to the Palestinian government in the West Bank at the Paris Donors Conference have been undercut by the extrajudicial killing of twelve Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by Israel overnight. The twelve were killed in a series of air attacks and an undercover operation, bringing the number of extrajudicial killing operations launched since 28 September 2000 to at least 256, which have killed at least 612 Palestinians. [1]
PNI Secretary General, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, said that the killings constituted a war crime under international law. He added that unless the international community exerts immediate pressure on Israel to end its occupation and myriad forms of aggression against the Palestinian people - thereby targeting the underlying cause of poverty and instability in the region - economic support would only serve as a band aid to cover up the festering wound caused by Israel‘s ongoing occupation.
The twelve men were killed in four separate attacks carried out between Monday night and Tuesday morning. In the first attack on Monday evening, an Israeli air strike on a car carrying Majid Al-Harazin and Jihad Ath-Thahir killed both men and wounded five others. A second air strike killed Husam Abu Jabal, Muhammad At-Taramsi and Usama Yasin and injured several others as the men entered a mosque in the Jabalia refugee camp early on Tuesday morning. In the West Bank, an Israeli death squad shot Tariq Abu Ghali at dawn and removed his body to an unknown destination. In the last attack in Gaza City, a series of Israeli air strikes killed Karim Ad-Dahduh, Ammar Abu As-Sai‘d and Ayman Al-Aylah, and wounded a number of others.
The policy of targeted assassinations has become an integral part of Israeli military culture. In July 2001, the Israeli security cabinet gave the military permission to kill anyone on Israel‘s "wanted" list. After a brief suspension in 2005, Israel resumed its policy of targeted assassinations and now carries out such extrajudicial killings with regularity and complete impunity.
Israel‘s extrajudicial killings have become symbolic of its disregard for international law. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life." Under Article 4 of ICCPR, the right to life cannot be derogated from even "[i]n time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation." [2]
Targeted assassinations have repeatedly resulted in the death and injury of civilian bystanders who happen to be in the vicinity at the moment of the attack. 212 of the 612 Palestinians killed were civilians and passers-by, 68 of whom were children.
Notes
[1] PCHR. 13 December 2007. Position Paper: Extra-Judicial Executions. http://www.pchrgaza.ps/special/position_extra.html.
[2] Al Haq. November 2006. Extrajudicial Killings: Al-Haq‘s Background Brief on Israel‘s Extrajudicial Killings in the OPT. http://www.alhaq.org/pdfs/Extra-judicial%20killings%20briefing%20by%20Al-Haq.pdf